The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor(s), to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards managed by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee that govern wireless networking transmission methods. For example, the following standards—802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n among others—are commonly used to provide wireless connectivity among wireless communication devices, and provide the basis for wireless communications devices using the “Wi-Fi” brand name. Bluetooth® is an example of another wireless communication standard that governs wireless networking transmission methods. The Bluetooth standard is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
In the IEEE 802.11, a Basic Service Set (BSS) means a set of stations (STAs) successfully synchronized with each other. A Basic Service Area (BSA) means an area including members of the BSS. The BSA can vary depending on propagation characteristics of a wireless medium and thus the boundary can vary. The BSS can be basically classified into two kinds: an independent BSS (IBSS) and an infra-structured BSS. The former means a BSS that constitutes a self-contained network and that is not permitted to access a Distribution System (DS). The latter means a BSS that includes one or more Access Points (APs) and a distribution system and that uses the APs in all the communication processes including communications between the Non-AP stations.
Wireless protocol IEEE 802.11z defines a protocol which allows wireless 802.11 stations (STAs) that are associated with the same Access Point (AP) to set up a direct link, e.g. a wireless peer-to-peer connection, directly between them. The protocol is referred to as Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS). While trying to comply with IEEE 802.11z rules, a number of functions performed between directly connected stations include inefficient procedures (e.g., transmission of extra messages/frames, cause delays in responses, and so on) that may consume device power and/or create unnecessary network traffic. Optimizing certain procedures may be beneficial.